Dungeons & Dragons Online Going Free-to-Play - UPDATED
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Exactly. I'm going to try this game just because of all the praise it got during MM. Then I'm probably going to find a lot of the content to be restricted, preventing me from enjoying the game to its full extent.KeyMaster45 said:
That still prevents me from accessing certain areas of the game.Babidi said:
Also, I don't want to grind enemies for ridiculous amounts of time just to gain access to certain content.
You will not be grinding, you will be playing the game, and when you get the points trade them for the area you want to access for free...Internet Kraken said:
Well, its still on beta, we shall see if it easy to get the points or not but the plan is to play the game, get the favor points and only pay to get things faster if you dont want to wait.
Bab
Free.
Unless you want to play the entire game.
It's a store-based demo version of the whole game.
If you like it, it will be cheaper, in the long run, just to buy it and subscribe. I wouldn't waste any time or money, though. To me, this seems like Turbine's final stand for DDO to try and hope and pray that people will play this game so they don't have to just kill the franchise.
Subscribers are jumping ship at an alarming rate (according to their forums) because of the communication (or lack thereof) from the developers and the lack of content updates.
I played and DDO for 2 months. In that time I capped 3 toons and it just became a grind fest.
Fanboys will tell you about its "unique combat style" that consists of you clicking the mouse ceaselessly. If I wanted to do that, there are literally millions of java based browser games I can play for (really) free. The entire game is instanced based where you are quarantined in one city (Stormreach...seriously?). Even the "explorer" areas are just instanced. The lag rapes your will to play. The economy (auction house) is divided into those with billions of platinum and everybody else (medicore items sell for up to 10 times their value, and that is just the non-rare items). Crafting is luck of the draw. Once you've done a mission on one difficulty, you've done them all; just memorize where the traps and mobs are, it is zerger porn. Downtime for "maintenance" is weekly (every Monday), but what they fix is a mystery as patch notes and fixes are nowhere to be found (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=150534 last updated in Jan! There have been several crashes and fixes since then, but damned if they're gonna tell you what went wrong). Oh, fanboys also tout the merits of it's "customization" where every chain mail looks like every other chain mail and there are pitifully few character visualization tweaks to be had. All stats are basically min/max, but, hey, I can be a dual class. I guess that's something.
Honestly, for a game that has been around for 3 years, it is a pitiful attempt at an MMO. The only thing keeping it alive is the fanboy base, and all they do is start petitions for what they think should be in the game, gripe about content updates, and flamewar ANYBODY that doesn't think DDO was handed to man by the Gods themselves on a golden platter carried by 100 gorgeous virgins just waiting for a D&D fan to deflower them and make them their fantasy women.
I suggest saving your money (AND TIME) and getting Champions Online or one of the many other games being released on September 1st.
Unless you want to play the entire game.
It's a store-based demo version of the whole game.
If you like it, it will be cheaper, in the long run, just to buy it and subscribe. I wouldn't waste any time or money, though. To me, this seems like Turbine's final stand for DDO to try and hope and pray that people will play this game so they don't have to just kill the franchise.
Subscribers are jumping ship at an alarming rate (according to their forums) because of the communication (or lack thereof) from the developers and the lack of content updates.
I played and DDO for 2 months. In that time I capped 3 toons and it just became a grind fest.
Fanboys will tell you about its "unique combat style" that consists of you clicking the mouse ceaselessly. If I wanted to do that, there are literally millions of java based browser games I can play for (really) free. The entire game is instanced based where you are quarantined in one city (Stormreach...seriously?). Even the "explorer" areas are just instanced. The lag rapes your will to play. The economy (auction house) is divided into those with billions of platinum and everybody else (medicore items sell for up to 10 times their value, and that is just the non-rare items). Crafting is luck of the draw. Once you've done a mission on one difficulty, you've done them all; just memorize where the traps and mobs are, it is zerger porn. Downtime for "maintenance" is weekly (every Monday), but what they fix is a mystery as patch notes and fixes are nowhere to be found (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=150534 last updated in Jan! There have been several crashes and fixes since then, but damned if they're gonna tell you what went wrong). Oh, fanboys also tout the merits of it's "customization" where every chain mail looks like every other chain mail and there are pitifully few character visualization tweaks to be had. All stats are basically min/max, but, hey, I can be a dual class. I guess that's something.
Honestly, for a game that has been around for 3 years, it is a pitiful attempt at an MMO. The only thing keeping it alive is the fanboy base, and all they do is start petitions for what they think should be in the game, gripe about content updates, and flamewar ANYBODY that doesn't think DDO was handed to man by the Gods themselves on a golden platter carried by 100 gorgeous virgins just waiting for a D&D fan to deflower them and make them their fantasy women.
I suggest saving your money (AND TIME) and getting Champions Online or one of the many other games being released on September 1st.
I've been in the Beta for a while now, so I'll share a few impressions:
First of all, the game is pretty good, especially if you enjoy 3.5ed DnD rules. Sure, there have been some alterations (for instance Spell Points) and additions (for instance Enhancements), but the feel of DnD is still in there. All quests are instanced, but are well designed and overall the game plays nice. At the very least, I liked it quite a bit. Grouping is pretty much mandatory after the early levels as the game gets pretty brutal and practically unsoloable for the average player.
It's coming out in the US only. Cry me a river. There's nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, stopping you from making an account even if you're in Europe, so stop the whining about that part. You can probably still grab a Beta code off Fileplanet and see for yourself.
As for the game's amount of F2P content and the Store, it's crap. At around level 5 you run into a massive cockblock where about 2/3 of the game is locked out and you need to purchase the content one quest hub at a time. Also, buying only the low level content packs will cost you the same as about 2-3 months of subscription (and subscribers get other benefits besides access to all the content). By low level I mean content for levels 1-8. Unlocking all the content would cost you more than a year worth of subscription fees. And that's before you start paying for extra classes, races, character and bank slots, etc. AND THAT'S BEFORE you even look at consumeables and vanity items. Basically, the Store is a ripoff in its current incarnation and not worth a penny.
Essentially, it's a solid game with a terrible F2P model that works like a glorified demo. On one hand, the game is superior to pretty much all F2P games since it was actually developed as a proper game, but it feels far too limited. Also, a game that's totally focused on grouping can only suffer by restricting access to content to some of its players. Feel free to try it out, at least it won't cost you anything.
First of all, the game is pretty good, especially if you enjoy 3.5ed DnD rules. Sure, there have been some alterations (for instance Spell Points) and additions (for instance Enhancements), but the feel of DnD is still in there. All quests are instanced, but are well designed and overall the game plays nice. At the very least, I liked it quite a bit. Grouping is pretty much mandatory after the early levels as the game gets pretty brutal and practically unsoloable for the average player.
It's coming out in the US only. Cry me a river. There's nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, stopping you from making an account even if you're in Europe, so stop the whining about that part. You can probably still grab a Beta code off Fileplanet and see for yourself.
As for the game's amount of F2P content and the Store, it's crap. At around level 5 you run into a massive cockblock where about 2/3 of the game is locked out and you need to purchase the content one quest hub at a time. Also, buying only the low level content packs will cost you the same as about 2-3 months of subscription (and subscribers get other benefits besides access to all the content). By low level I mean content for levels 1-8. Unlocking all the content would cost you more than a year worth of subscription fees. And that's before you start paying for extra classes, races, character and bank slots, etc. AND THAT'S BEFORE you even look at consumeables and vanity items. Basically, the Store is a ripoff in its current incarnation and not worth a penny.
Essentially, it's a solid game with a terrible F2P model that works like a glorified demo. On one hand, the game is superior to pretty much all F2P games since it was actually developed as a proper game, but it feels far too limited. Also, a game that's totally focused on grouping can only suffer by restricting access to content to some of its players. Feel free to try it out, at least it won't cost you anything.
True. You probably get to play as 1 race and 3 classes (fighter, archer, preist)level250geek said:
Exactly my friend! I agree. I have tried just about every "model" of online play and find the one DDO uses of being mostly free but with optional micro-transactions and additional content you can pay for once you complete the core game to be the best one. I've tried some of the supposedly completely free mmorpgs out there and found them to be rather pitiful, 2-D Java based dnd knock-offs. But you get what you pay for I always say.Kuala BangoDango said:
I also have tried the buy the whole game in a store or download it for a "normal" off the shelf game price but then play it online with no monthly fee like they did with Guild Wars. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I found myself a little underwhelmed at the quality (or lack thereof) of the game I was playing that I paid $50 for. I had played much cheaper RPGs that I liked better. Also the whole guild system on that game didn't work for me as I wound up going through a series of joining guilds only to have them either dry up and die due to other members quitting or being kicked off the guild for not keeping pace with the other guild members.
I briefly tried the buy the whole game online or in a store and also pay a monthly fee to play it model with WOW and the Star Wars MMORPG but I never got over the frustration of having to pay my ISP for internet access and having to pay the game company to keep playing the game.
Nope, the DDO model has it right. Play for free to try it out all you want to with no time limitations (I Really hate it when demos have time limits in days, log ons etc. so that you feel like you have to devote huge blocks of time to the game just to get through all the demo before you are locked out)and then if you really want to get deep into the game and do everything and go everywhere subscribe. I love that you can choose to either buy upgrades, equipment, spells etc with either real money or points granted to you in-game by completing quests. I used some of my first in-game granted points to buy some gold seal hirelings. Wow! What a great deal! For something like 10 points, I got a fully functional party member who I could order around and/or let decide what he wanted to do himself for quite a long time. Those hirelings are really helpful, especially if you pick ones that have different classes and abilities than you do.
For now, I'm playing on the Khyber world/server as Arctostaphls Uva-ursi a Level 2 Dwarf Cleric. Look me up if you would like to do a quest with me.